Resolving Stalkers Season 5

[Neo Emolga]

The Milotic? Wow, I hadn't even payed attention to them. Heck, we wouldn't even find out if was her because Borsei is, you know...kind of dead thanks to Astralnox. Speaking of them, let's see who Astralnox is and if he actually a Pokemon I dislike anyways!

Yeah, Alishia went pretty unnoticed for the entire game. Usually in Stalkers they get at least a little bit of attention, but in this one, it just didn’t happen with Alishia.

Anyway, as requested, here’s Astralnox’s!

ASTRALNOX – Daxu the Gengar

Spoiler:

Backstory
Daxu was always an extroverted social butterfly, which seems almost odd as a descriptor considering his species as a Gengar. But nonetheless, Daxu always seemed like a fun guy to be around. He made conversations about you rather than about himself. As a result, he had gained a lot of friends over the years and suddenly this “ghost guy” that usually was known for being nefarious didn’t seem so bad.

ASTRALNOX showed itself to Daxu.
It was quite an innocent encounter at first. Astralnox had found Daxu as a “spirit without a body” and pretended to be lost and not sure where he was supposed to be. Daxu, curious to know more about this “lost soul,” tried to get to know Astralnox a little better and learn more about him.

How ASTRALNOX twisted Daxu's expectation
Astralnox leveraged the OMEN attack against Daxu. Daxu never had experienced fear like this before, but thankfully he was one of the first to make it to the refugee encampment. Problem was, a lot of his friends and buddies didn’t and Daxu wasn’t sure if they’re still in the Reach or if they’re dead. He wanted to become one of the Seekers to venture into the Reach to look for survivors, but he was still considered a civilian and only the Pokémon allowed to be considered official Seekers are all members of Aurorawatch.

Astralnox said to hell with that and offered to help Daxu sneak out and go into the Reach to look for clues and any signs of his missing friends. Daxu, feeling like Astralnox really care about him and his friends, took him on his offer.

Murder process and signature
Daxu went from being a social butterfly to becoming a stalker in the truest sense. He wanted to learn everything about everyone, and Astralnox is constantly feeding him this raw, hideous, naked power of knowledge. Instead of finding friends, Daxu hunts out victims and wants to know everything, every little tidbit about them in a disturbing way. Victims killed by Daxu/Astralnox have all their information revealed as if Investigate was performed on them, only it’s useless because they’re dead and obviously not Stalkers themselves. But how does Astralnox even get this power? No one really knows.

Font: Grungy Style

Summary of story/route:
Astralnox’s main focus is a ridiculous amount of 4th wall breaking and Sanity damage is a real super trend on his route. Stalker graphics and items suddenly become customized on the Emissary finding them! Puzzles and graphics feature the Emissaries! Likes and dislikes that the players have are featured in his route! And they’re twisted and deranged in every way you can imagine. As much as possible is prepared in advance as far as graphics go, but there will be placeholders for things that are customized specifically for the player who comes across these twisted things.

Traps and hazards are hideous, they’re specifically customized to deal terrible amounts of Health damage specifically for the Emissary walking into them. Fire type? Get ready for some water and ground traps. Dragon? Here’s some ice and dragon breaths coming right up. It’ll feel like rotten luck in the beginning but eventually when players see everything they run into is specifically designed for them, they’ll catch on to the trend and it’ll be freaky.

Memento: An old Hollyville High School yearbook. Flipping through it, Emissaries will be presented with pictures of sports clubs, school plays, and of course, photo pages of all the students. Daxu was only a Haunter back then and deceptively his name will be among a long list of randomly generated Pokémon names. In order to realize whose Memento this is, they’ll need to compare the list of town civilians with the list of names in the yearbook to see who it belongs to.

If presented with the yearbook prior to the final battle, Daxu will just claim he doesn’t have the time to sign it and will go back to focusing on figuring out what he can do to find his lost friends.

Getting the yearbook is a bit trickier than most mementos. It requires the Emissaries to find the “Wall Vault” safe, which is in terrible shape and needs a new circuit board, needs to be reprogrammed, and even after all that, still needs the original 8-digit passcode.

(14b) Western Side Aurorawatch Military Bunker

[Damaged “Wall Vault” Circuit Board: <Repair>

(84) J&T Trucking (ABANDONED)]

{Injured Lucario: <Medicine>}

[8-digit Passcode]

(17) North Heights Storage (ABANDONED)

{“Wall Vault” Safe: Missing Circuit Board AND <Technical> AND <8-Digit Passcode>}

[Hollyville High School Yearbook Memento]

Astralnox's Stalker Route



The main feature of Astralnox’s Stalker route is its freakish tendencies to break the fourth wall and make it personal with the Emissaries. Anywhere there is a **Custom** mark, the player that comes across it gets inserted into that item or feature. So say if a Bob the Pikachu character comes across the **Custom** Payment, it’s their Bob the Pikachu character that’s going to be on the item or image (jigsaw puzzle in cases of Payments). Initially, it does some Sanity damage to see their own self getting placed into macabre items and situations (seeing their own head, putting together a puzzle with them looking freakish). If it so happens that they already have an item of the same type made for them, then another Emissary is chosen at random (so at most only one player will have a Payment and Head each).

What’s worse is when the items are turned in as offerings, they function like a voodoo doll and the Emissaries tied to the item take damage! This can be brutal as Emissaries can now take damage outside of their own turns, which could be fatal if they’re not ready for it!

The route itself focuses on ultimately The Fourfold Dark Payment, where the tortured depictions of four Emissaries are paid. Each of these Payments is pretty brutal. Essentially, whoever comes across the Payment has a deranged and twisted image of their Pokémon character put into a freakish jigsaw puzzle. Puzzle needs to be assembled, and then needs to be readied for the Fourfold Dark Payment. It’s brutal.

XXXs = Character’s Name
YYYs = Character’s Pokémon Species

PATH OF THE FIRST DARK PAYMENT

To get the first Payment, the Emissaries need to bring three of their own Emissary heads to {The Assembly of Heads} for sacrifice. Essentially, to any Emissary, coming across your own severed head is going to do Sanity Damage upon first discovery (3 Sanity damage up front) and then handling the head does one more (to anyone using it). But when taken to the {Assembly of Heads}, the ensuring sacrificial holocaust causes some Health damage then (3 Health). It’s a good warning and prelude as to what this route is all about!

(20) Exacta City Police Precinct (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(39) Newpoint Building (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(52) West Exacta River Bridge (ABANDONED)

#Macabre Discovery – Decapitated Self (8 Sanity Damage)
#[Head of XXX the YYY] Macabre Presence – (3 Sanity Damage)#

(40) Memorial Heart Hospital (ABANDONED)

#{Assembly of Heads Sacrificial Altar: Head Mount AND Head Mount AND Head Mount} Infernal Essence – (5 Sanity Damage and 5 Purity Damage)#
==Using the Heads causes 7 Health and 7 Sanity Damage to each of the head owners==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE SECOND DARK PAYMENT

Super, super easy, there’s essentially no legwork to this at all. In fact, it’s scary for the fact that anyone can come across this wicked thing and be totally unprepared for it. Too bad, you’ve become Dark Payment #2 whether you like it or not! Also, there’s a nice booby trap by it that customizes itself to be super-effective against whoever blunders into it!

(69) Westmarch Manufacturing Compound (ABANDONED)

#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (6 Health Damage, 6 Purity Damage)#
[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE THIRD DARK PAYMENT

Just so peeps don’t get too cozy, this part has the player lose a chunk of their Purity or Sanity up front and it gets handed to them in item form! But wait, there’s more! When it gets used at the Oblivion Offering at the lovely tourist attraction of the very heart of the OMEN crater, it chews up some more. Oh, and whoever does that Oblivion Offering gets the next Dark Payment made for them, also! Boy, what a deal!

(54a) Exacta City Maximum Security Prison – Main Prison Structure (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Soul (6 Purity Damage)#
[Innocence of XXX the YYY]

(71) Erodos Elder Care (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Lucidity (6 Sanity Damage)#
[Serenity of XXX the YYY]

(76) The OMEN Crater (ABANDONED)

#{Oblivion Offering: Craving for Innocence AND Craving for Serenity} Unholy Nefarious Essence – (6 Sanity Damage and 6 Purity Damage)#
==Causes 10 Purity Damage to the Innocence owner==
==Causes 10 Sanity Damage to the Serenity owner==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

PATH OF THE FOURTH DARK PAYMENT

The fourth Dark Payment is a little on the easy side. It’s similar to the third, except a player gives up some of their blood as the tribute offering and it’s used for a fountain. Once the blood gets the fountain running, the player who gave up the blood takes more health damage while the one inserting it gets a Dark Payment customized just for them!

(78) Tancel Bottling Plant (ABANDONED)

#Siphon Extractor (6 Health Damage)#
[Blood of XXX the YYY]

(46) Ashen Park (ABANDONED)

{Dried Fountain: Offering of Blood}
#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (5 Health Damage, 5 Sanity Damage)#
==Causes 10 Health Damage to the Blood owner==

[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY: <Repair>]

FINAL STRETCH

And here’s where it all comes together!

(64) Bridgeheights Tower (ABANDONED)

{The Fourfold Dark Payment: Dark Payment AND Dark Payment AND Dark Payment AND Dark Payment}
#Deranged Element – SUPER-EFFECTIVE TYPE (5 Health Damage, 5 Sanity Damage)#
==Causes 15 Health, 15 Sanity, and 15 Purity Damage each Dark Payment owner==

THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF SOULS [Astralnox’s Phylactery]

Puzzles:


[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
XXX’s get filled in with the character’s name, YYY’s with the character’s species, and that Pikachu Silhouette placeholder gets filled in with a very effed-up image of whoever the victim is! Makes for a lovely jigsaw puzzle the whole family can enjoy!


[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
Same as the first one, but this time in a creepy factory setting! Nothing like seeing your own character look twisted, deranged, and all zombie-like, eh? Best is doing it piece by piece via a jigsaw!


[Dark Payment of XXX the YYY] Template
I mean really, what did you think was going to happen when you decided to pay the OMEN crater a visit and chuck the materialized innocence and serenity of your player friends into oblivion? Something happy? Nah, you got a fresh Dark Payment made after yourself, that’s what!


It’s like a walk in the park! Except the park is evil. And haunted. And you’re there, looking all twisted up and stuff. Oof!


Lucario <Medicine>


Lucario <Medicine> Solutions

Graphics:


From the Torture Chamber of Souls! Welcome, friend!

Yeah the reveals are always kind of interesting. I remember there was one season, 3? I think?, where one of the stalkers ended up being the first interview I did that route so I was completely heartbroken to discover it was her all along. My character ended up not being the one to take her out, which I feel like would’ve been a more fun conclusion, but I still vividly remember the shock and how betrayed I felt upon the initial reveal. XD

Yeah, I think it was Franny the Mismagius from Season 3, who ended up being Bloodwish. Writing up her exorcism was pretty crazy. A battle with an abomination right in the middle of a children’s hospital with kids too sick to move. That’s definitely dicey!

Also, my absolute favorite Stalker of all time… Yandil the Smeargle as Overkill. This was a naughty reverse psychology experiment that preyed on peoples’ tendencies to tread carefully and the results were hilarious. The Stalker that everyone in town blamed and talked about and accused of being a Stalker. And there was plenty of evidence, also! It’s just I made it seem too easy. Too easy to believe and yet everyone was right.

Ah, such cool reveals! And gosh, there was SO much more along each path. I love being able to see all the puzzles and am a bit sad we never got to solve them.


Speaking of spin-offs, I feel like it would be kinda cool to make a simple/smaller version of stalkers in RPGmaker to play as a quirky lil videogame... just to give to friends/PXR to try, for fun, for halloween this year! Would anyone be against that?

It would be awesome to see Stalkers as a video game, but I have very, very limited programming experience and I’ve never used RPGmaker, so I don’t even know how to get started with it. And yeah, there was a LOT more to Season 5, and even I tried to make things easier with Syrax the Espeon helping out, but it just wasn’t doing the job. If it was really close and coming down to the wire, I’d say ah, just keep on trucking through it, but nah, there’s just so much extra stuff to go through and I’m just burnt. Oof.

I think if I were to do this again, it HAS to be much smaller with a lot of these "extra features" out no matter how nice they seem. See, Season 1 and Season 3 worked GREAT, but the issue I had with Season 2 and 5 was just getting carried away with add-ons and “oh, gotta make this the grand finale, so… here’s a heap of stuff I think will be great.” It ended up being too much extra baggage, even if it looks like it would be awesome to see implemented.

These lessons learned are painful. :P